A mobbed-up Nassau cop working behind-the-scenes for the Bonanno crime family staged a fake raid to shut down a gambling parlor run by rival Genovese gangster Salvatore “Sal the Shoemaker” Rubino, federal prosecutors charge in new court filings.
Now-fired Nassau County Police Department Detective Hector Rosario allegedly had a side gig working for the Bonanno crime family — and the Bonannos considered Rubino’s gambling den in his Merrick, L.I. shop, Sal’s Shoe Repair, the competition, the feds say.
So in 2013 or 2014, two Bonanno members paid Rosario to shut the place down and Rosario got to work, according to a January filing by federal prosecutors.
The two Bonannos who gave the order are expected to sing at Rosario’s trial in Brooklyn Federal Court next month. Neither are named in the court filings.
One of the informants, a Bonanno associate, is expected to testify he was in the room when Rosario and his “associates” barged into Rubino’s shoe repair shop, broke one of the gambling machines and demanded Rubino tell them where he could find Joseph “Joe Box” Rutigliano, a Genovese associate who collected the gambling proceeds, according to the feds.
The Bonannos also paid Rosario to shut down at least two Gambino crime family gambling spots, according to prosecutors. The bent detective also provided a “tip” to his Nassau cop colleagues about the existence of a betting parlor the Bonannos saw as competition, the feds allege.
Rosario, who was fired from the Nassau County Police Department in August 2022, is set to go on trial next month in Brooklyn Federal Court for obstructing a grand jury investigation and lying to the FBI.
Rosario and the Bonanno associate became close friends around 2008 and the gangster enlisted the detective into a life of crime, the feds allege. Rosario used a law enforcement database to look up a possible government cooperator for his Bonanno buddy in 2018 to determine if they were a snitch, according to the feds.
He also visited his Bonanno friend’s marijuana grow house, offered to transport the pot, helped the gangster obtain heroin and discussed a plot to conduct a fake raid on a drug dealer in Hempstead, the feds allege.
The gangster introduced Rosario to the second cooperator, a made member of the Bonnano family, as a “dirty cop” and Rosario lived up to the label, even going as far as warning the made man not to talk on his cell phone because he was under criminal investigation, the feds say.
Rosario is charged with rattling off a string of lies in a January 2020 interview with the feds where he claimed he didn’t even recognize Sal the Shoemaker’s photo and had never stepped foot in a gambling spot. He remains free on $500,000 bond.
In a Jan. 10 motion, Rosario’s lawyer asked the trial judge to bar prosecutors from mentioning the mafia at all.
“References to organized crime are unnecessary to make the determination of whether Mr. Rosario was truthful in his statements to the FBI, ” defense lawyer Louis Freeman wrote. “There is simply no need to introduce the Five Families at Mr. Rosario’s trial in order for the jury to make factual determinations of guilt as to the crimes charged. Such explosive evidence would inevitably taint the trial, as it would be introduced only to show Mr. Rosario’s propensity for criminality.”
Freeman did not return a message seeking comment.
Rosario was busted in August 2022 along with eight other men as part of a federal takedown of Genovese and Bonanno gambling operations. The suspects were charged with running gambling dens out of cafes and sports clubs in Queens and on Long Island.
Rubino and four other Genovese gangsters pleaded guilty in the case in April. Carmelo “Carmine” Polito, a former acting captain and soldier in the Genovese crime family, was sentenced to 30 months behind bars in December, while the other four await sentencing.
